How Oscar Isaac Accidentally Got His Uncle a Role In ‘Star Wars’

Uncles and Star Wars have a strange connection. Not only did Oscar Isaac involve his uncle in The Force Awakens, but one particular famous actor in all three films of the prequel trilogy has an uncle who was in all three films of the original trilogy as well. Read on to find out what else these Star Wars uncles are doing and how one of the nephews is continuing his association with the saga.

Oscar Isaac’s uncle is a huge ‘Star Wars’ fan

Oscar Isaac |Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Isaac, who plays hotshot rebel pilot Poe Dameron in the new trilogy, has an uncle who is a major Star Wars fan, according to Mental Floss. He talked about this on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon after The Force Awakens came out.

“He has like a mini-museum with all his action figures in different poses, all in glass. He loves it so much that when I told him I was case, he got green and hyperventilated,” Isaac said.

Isaac couldn’t let his uncle pass out without some kind of compensation, so he took his uncle to The Force Awakens set despite the super-tight security. Isaac told director JJ Abrams he was going to do this, but nobody was prepared for what Isaac’s uncle would do.

Oscar Isaac’s uncle visited the ‘Star Wars’ set

“My uncle came with all these shirts he had made that had everyone’s name on them … he handed them out to everyone and JJ said, ‘You want to be in the movie?'” Isaac said.

His uncle no doubt started hyperventilating again the crew they put him in full costume and makeup and let him be an extra. So if you have family in a Star Wars movie, and you want to in the movie too, now you know what to do.

Oscar Isaac’s uncle isn’t the only celebrity uncle to make a cameo

What’s funny about this is this isn’t the first instance of an uncle having a famous association with Star Wars. Remember Wedge, the Rebel fighter pilot who survived the Death Star attack in the original Star Wars and went on to appear in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi? He was played by actor Dennis Lawson, whose nephew is none other than Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel trilogy.

What else has Oscar Isaac worked on outside of ‘Star Wars’?

Star Wars fans may know Isaac primarily as Poe, but movie fans know his as an actor whose presence usually elevates a movie. Even if a movie is not good, like Surbicon, Isaac will usually provide a scene or two to breathe life into it.

One of his first major roles was playing the title character in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis, where Isaac plays a struggling folk singer who always seems to be dancing around fame but never quite hitting it himself. Other memorable performances include Ex Machina, about a reclusive tech genius who builds a scarily human robot, and the underrated A Most Violent Year, about an immigrant trying to run his business above board despite criminal elements swirling around him.

On a different Fallon appearance, Isaac talked about wrapping up the whole Star Wars experience. His last day on the set of Episode IX was also the last day for Anthony Daniels’ whose Threepio has been in all nine of the episodes.

“Way to take the thunder. This guy has been there from the very beginning” Isaac said. “He was super emotional about it, hanging up the golden cowell.”